Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales/The Verge
Space tourism venture Virgin Galactic is now a publicly traded company, thanks to a reverse merger. The company’s billionaire founder, Richard Branson, was on hand at the New York Stock Exchange Monday morning to celebrate the public offering, along with firework shows and a giant banner of his eye adorning the outside of the building.
For its first day of trading, the company’s stock — under the ticker SPCE — was on the rise for a good part of the morning. Shares opened at $12.34, but ultimately closed at $11.75 — a .3 percent decrease.
The question now is if public investors will put their money into a company focused on sending…